OPTIMIZING LEARNING
IN PUPPIES
A roundtable discussion

The views in this publication represent those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of The lams Company or the publisher. Copyright 2004 by The lams Company. All rights reserved. Published by Advanstar Veterinary Healthcare Communications, Lenexa, Kan.
Printed in the United States of America.

Moderator:
Ernest Ward Jr., DVM
Seaside Animal Care Calabash, N.C.

Participants:
Debra Horwitz, DVM, DACVB
Veterinary Behavior Consultations St. Louis, Mo.
College of Veterinary Medicine University of Missouri Columbia, Mo.

Joseph Demichael, DVM
The Labradors of Bainbridge Lexington, Ky.
Barbara S. Simpson, DVM, PhD, DACVB
The Veterinary Behavior Clinic

Gary, N.C.
Department of Clinical Sciences
College of Veterinary Medicine
North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC

Joeseph Bartges, DVM, PhD, DACVTM,
DACVN
Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences College of Veterinary Medicine University of Tennessee Knoxville, Tenn.

Dr. Ernest Ward: Recent scientific research has linked nutrition and cognitive development in infants, and now this research is being directed a man's best friend. A dog's ability to learn quickly and to integrate into a new home and lifestyle is vital to its role as a loving companion. Nutrition's role in this transition is important to veterinarians and dog owners alike. As our understanding of behavior expands, we'll be able to better prepare puppies for life with their human families. Behavior problems are one of the most common reasons pet owners relinquish their pets. Let's discuss some of the major behavior challenges faced by dog owners and veterinarians to learn why prevention is so important.
Dr. Barbara Simpson: Behavior problems confound pet owners and put them in real conflict. These people are attached to their pets, but they're dealing with behavior that makes it impossible for them to live with the animals harmoniously. In frustration, they find a new home for the pet or abandon it. As behavior-ists, we know that although many problems are treatable, it's much better to prevent them in the first place.

PREVENTION AND APPROPRIATE OUTLETS
Dr. Debra Horwitz: Several studies going back to 1966 have looked at reasons people give up their pets. Behavior was cited by 30% of the dog owners as the reason for surrender, and the vast majority of relinquished pets were under 2 years of age.1 Many problems cited in these studies were normal behaviors—things like roaming, jumping, digging, and barking. So when we talk about prevention, it's important to make sure owners have appropriate expectations and understand normal dog behavior.
Dr. Joseph Demichael: It's critically important to clearly detail expectations before the owner accepts a new family member into the home. I address this thoroughly before placing a pet with a new family. The new owner may consider normal puppy behavior unacceptable.
Ward: As a general practitioner, I'm confronted with those situations every day. Clients bring in a puppy that's starting to chew on a favorite tennis shoe, and they think they have a bad dog, or a dumb or untrainable dog. We tell people these are normal behaviors; it's what they should expect. We hate that their best tennis shoe got chewed up, but that's a normal part of puppy behavior.
Demichael: These accidents can be prevented by proper counseling and advising owners about what can be expected and how to be prepared.
Horwitz: These behaviors need appropriate outlets. A big part of prevention is telling pet owners that a puppy will chew, so they need lots of chew toys. And yes, the owners have to put their shoes away and keep the closet door closed—a puppy won't discriminate between old and new shoes. Animals like to explore with their mouths, so they're going to bite on their owners, and that behavior needs to be stopped even though it's cute. We can provide information about what the puppy will do and what kind of outlets it needs. I tell people, "When your puppy is between 8 and 12 weeks of age, this is what you need to do. Between 12 weeks and 6 months, these are the problems you will confront. Between 6 months and 1 year, these are the issues." If we break it into small increments, people can cope better.
Simpson: I find puppies tend to get an "any behavior is OK" card, like a freebie card, during this cute puppy phase. People even promote negative behaviors because puppies are charming and relatively small. They say, "Come on puppy," and when the puppy jumps onto their lap, it's rewarded for its behavior. Or they throw a tennis shoe around the house and think it's cute that the puppy chases it. Later, when jumping or chewing upsets the owner, the young dog becomes confused. We need to emphasize that we want a dog that lives by the house rules from the beginning and will be a long-term companion in the home with a good understanding of the rules.
Demichael: I agree; house rules should be instituted from the puppy's first week in the new home.
Horwitz: Veterinarians can make a checklist of the 10 house rules that owners want for their dogs. Don't get on the furniture. Don't run out the front door. Don't bark inappropriately. Don't jump on people. It's easier to teach what you want than to change what you don't want, and once the explanations are clear, the veterinarian or staff can help the family reach thei training goals. In puppy class, I ask people to write down fivt things they want to accomplish. The most common responses are for their pets to come when called, to sit wrier told, and not bite anybody. That's what pet owners want, and we can help accomplish those things.
Better behaved pets benefit veterinary practices. If all puppies and kittens were taught how to be handled, how to have medication put in their ears, how to have their nails trimmed, and how to have their mouths opened, treatment compliance would improve. It pays for practitioners to spend a little time up front on these skills. They could present a checklist to new pet owners: "Does your puppy jump on you? Does it bite at you?" A technician can facilitate the discussion. And once they have the answers to those questions, they can offer handouts or training sessions.
Dr. Joseph Bartges: As smal animal practitioners, we recog nize the role of prevention, and prevention extends beyond the individual pet. If < new pet misbehaves and the family gets rid of it, everyone suffers. Children learn that if one pet doesn't work, they cai dispose of it and get another one. Being involved with behavioral socialization and development is good for the owners and everybody in the household. It's obviously good for the pet. It's good medicine and it's good business.
THE GOLDEN WINDOW Ward: What other ways can veterinarians prevent behavior problems? How can we counsel people on a very basic level?
Simpson: Veterinarians are in the perfect position to take advantage of what we call the "golden window" of socialization. This is a special period of brain development in dogs that occurs from about 3 to 12 weeks of age. During this time, puppies learn a lot about what their world will be like—to accept gentle handling, learn limits, and be exposed to children in a positive way. As the window closes, puppies are still trainable, but we never again have that golden opportunity for socialization. For example, studies have shown that many puppies that don't have positive experiences with people early on will subsequently be afraid of people. Because veterinarians see puppies early, they can educate owners about this critical concept during the first few puppy visits. The socialization window closes about the time doctors administer rabies vaccines, so it's critical to take advantage of this unique opportunity when puppies are seen regularly in the practice. I think every practitioner should be addressing behavior in puppies, just like they address nutritional needs and other health issues.
PRESELECTION COUNSELING
Ward: Every day my general practice gets phone calls from people looking for puppies or kittens. This is a huge opportunity to guide them through the selection process. It's our first line of defense—we can help match owners to a breed or size appropriate for their lifestyle. We can also start to mold their expectations. Let's face it: An 85-year-old couple is probably not a good match with a border collie, even if they had one when they were younger. We can counsel them and offer more suitable breed alternatives. We also have a network of "breed support" clients who volunteer to talk with others about their chosen breed and relate their personal experiences. By the time the puppy is in our exam room, it's too late to help someone make the proper breed selection. The pet is displaying undesirable behaviors or is simply not what the owners expected. They've forgotten what a handful their recently departed 15-year-old dog was when they first got it. We have a huge opportunity to help clients choose the best dog for their lifestyle and avoid abandonment later due to an uninformed decision.
Simpson: Yes, practitioners should be taking advantage of any opportunity for shaping the selection of an appropriate pet. Preselection counseling encourages families to consider their lifestyle when selecting a pet. Preselection consultation is incredibly useful and can provide the best possible match between the family's lifestyle and the dog's behavioral profile. Many problems we see as specialists are breed-specific behaviors that are perfectly normal but inappropriate in a family environment.
Horwitz: Or excitable breeds in a noisy household that can make them more excitable, and active dogs in quiet households that may not meet their needs for activity and exploration.
Veterinarians also need to know where to send clients looking for a particular breed. If they're not aware of reputable sources, they can end up with a dog with problems due to poor genetics, improper nutrition, poor socialization, and many other issues.
BRINGING THE PUPPY HOME
Ward: Once the puppy is selected, what do we need to tell clients about introducing the puppy into the home, especially with regard to training and discipline?
Horwitz: Make time; make time; make time. Puppies need time to get used to their new family, and they need time to learn what they're supposed to do. Someone needs to spend ten minutes in the morning walking the puppy or going outside with it. Somebody has to come home at lunch and
let it out. At 5 p.m. the puppy needs to be walked or exercised and toileted again. The family needs to spend five minutes every day teaching it to sit or come, and they have to walk or take the puppy outside to eliminate after mealtime. They need to engage it in appropriate play on a daily basis. Someone has to pick up the toys. All those things add another hour or more to the day, but spread throughout the entire family, it's doable.
Demichael: Actually, I think one hour is a low estimate.
Simpson: Also, we see more behavior problems in puppies obtained during the winter, such as Christmas puppies. In the summer people have more flexibility, especially families with children. They have more daylight, they're more willing to go outside with the puppy so they can housetrain it properly instead of just shoving it out in the cold to eliminate. Things like housetraining or establishing good outdoor exercise routines tend to go more smoothly and quickly. Working individuals might want to take a block of time where they can be flexible in their schedule so they can help their puppy during the early stages.
Horwitz: Puppies are pliable. They can learn a lot during those early weeks and months. They are also extremely impressionable, so the way a person trains a puppy is very important. Positive methods are best—teaching what we want rather than reprimanding what we don't. We need to help owners understand that dogs don't have language. People can talk to their puppies all they want and explain what's allowed and what isn't, but it's not going to work. They need to set up their puppies to succeed. That might mean creating an exercise pen with plenty of toys and paper for the puppy to eliminate on so it's not always getting in trouble, and taking time to supervise the puppy so it learns the house rales and where to play, eliminate, and rest.
Bartges: The health of the pet is important too. If a puppy is not in good shape or has to forage for some reason, bad habits can form.
Ward: In our practice we try to impress on clients the need for structure and consistency. We want to make sure dogs have established boundaries. For example, you don't let a 6-week-old puppy roam the entire house. We help our clients provide consistent training within specific boundaries using positive reinforcement.
Demichael: I agree strongly. Both puppies, and dogs in general, need boundaries to succeed. We try to be as specific as possible in conveying our puppy training knowledge (acquired by trial and error) to the new family.
Simpson: I tailor my suggestions to the family's lifestyle, and encourage them to establish interaction routines that the family will do. Instead of offering rigid instructions; such as telling family members that their puppy needs to be walked half a mile, three times a day, I might say, "It sounds like you have some time when you come home from work—that'd be a great time to play with the puppy outside." Then I show them appropriate toys and interactions that don't involve mouthing or biting the hand. Sniffing new things is rewarding for dogs, so I encourage owners to build that into a positive experience. For example, on a walk, the owner needs to teach the puppy to walk alongside him or her and practice sit commands. Then, the owner can come to an interesting place, stop, and give the dog permission to sniff and eliminate. This way, the puppy is not sniffing and dragging the owner around during the actual walking, but the puppy gets a chance to sniff interesting odors.
Horwitz: Puppies aren't usually trying to take over the world. Their behavior isn't about dominance; it's about discovering the boundaries and learning the rules in the environment in which they live. They're asking, "Can I do this?" The answer should be, "Why don't you do this instead?" Puppies learn rules when we're consistent about them. "This is how you ask for things: by sitting quietly and waiting. This is where I want you to be when I eat dinner. This is what I want you to do when my children are getting a bath." If the boundaries are clear, the puppy won't become anxious. Often the misbehavior is simply the puppy performing the behavior at the wrong time or in the wrong place. If we teach them what is acceptable and what to do, things go more smoothly. Taking time to supervise and train the puppy, providing appropriate outlets for play and exercise, pays off later in life. Owners are often told that if their puppy misbehaves, they should show it who's boss—but most puppies, once they understand the rules, say "OK," and that's that.
Simpson: I often see problems in families with young children. Small children can create chaos in a home. So can a puppy. When these two chaotic forces combine, it can be a real challenge. I encourage families to set clear house rules. One is no rough play in the house. When the kids are inside, they use an "inside" voice and display "inside" manners. When they're outside, they can scream and jump and make noise. That goes for puppies, too. They can chase the ball and run with the kids outside, but when they come in the house, things should calm down. If a family doesn't have a fenced yard, I encourage them to find a place where they can safely let the puppy off the leash and teach it to come using rewards and fun times. Exuberant play is an important need for puppies, but they shouldn't be knocking everything off the coffee table or trying to solicit play while the kids are doing their homework. Puppies and children can play in the right place together with supervision and structure.
Bartges: It all comes back to building a relationship between owners and their pets. Almost all moments are teachable moments, which is true with children as well.
Demichael: The relationship between the owner, veterinarian, breeder, and dog is critically important. I'm fortunate that I'm able to provide my clients with an open phone line to continually assist them with questions about their new pet. Unfortunately, this is not always possible with veterinarians' schedules.
REDIRECTING BEHAVIOR
Ward: A big question, of course, is what to do when a puppy displays a negative behavior. How should we recommend disciplining a puppy?
Horwitz: Often for young puppies noise is enough of a deterrent, whether you say, "Eh, eh," clap your hands, or rattle a can with pennies inside, then redirect the behavior. So if a puppy is chewing on the table leg, you say, "Eh, eh, leave that alone," gently take the puppy away from the table and give it something appropriate to chew on. Then you stay in the room and repeat as necessary. Harsh punishment just makes a puppy afraid of you and anxious, and you want your puppy to look forward to being with you. We don't want a puppy that is frightened when reached for because of inappropriate punishment.
Simpson: I tell puppy owners to keep a treat jar in the kitchen and shake it once in a while, saying, "Come, puppy." When the puppy comes, they tell it to sit, give it one treat, say "Good puppy," and put the jar away. Then, if the puppy starts to misbehave, the owners pretend not to see it. They calmly walk into the kitchen and go through the treat jar process. The idea is to get the puppy away from the scene of the misbehavior and give it a chance to start over. They're not rewarding the misbehavior; they're rewarding come and sit, and they're redirecting the misbehavior, as one would do with a young child.
It's also important to remember that sometimes puppies seek attention and are not easily deterred—even if the deterrent seems negative to the owner. If a puppy is biting your hand and you say, "No, stop that" and push the puppy away, the puppy may pursue the biting as play, start barking, and escalate its behavior. In those cases, I ask the owner to note when the problems occur, and I often see a time association. For example, everybody comes home at the end of the day, checks e-mail and goes through the mail—and ignores the puppy. The puppy is excited by the social stimulation and begins to engage in attention-seeking behavior, biting at clothes, nipping at hands. It may even urinate in the back bedroom because it gets so excited. The family needs to set up positive interactions, recognizing the puppy's needs. For example, take the puppy outside to eliminate, then throw a ball or go for a walk before asking the puppy to come inside and be calm. Transition to inside behavior using a few simple training routines—ask the puppy to sit on command for small treats. Then give the puppy attention when it is calm and obedient instead of when it is unruly and attention-seeking.
Demichael: Using treat motivation, I preprogram puppies to respond to a certain whistle. This is instilled in their brains from the time of weaning. Whenever they hear my whistle, they'll drop what they're doing and look for me. I start all puppies with this system and owners love it. Any puppy can be trained to recognize and associate food with positive behavior. What's key is repetition.
Chewing in young puppies is often associated with teething. Obviously, chew toys are extremely important, but it's my opinion that chewing cannot be eliminated in young puppies. It must be redirected.
Horwitz: Sometimes we condition the puppy that when it's being calm and quiet, nobody pays attention to it. When it's being rowdy, it gets lots of attention. We want to change that so when the puppy is quiet and chewing on its bone, somebody rubs its ears and says, "Oh, you're the cutest puppy ever." Puppies then learn that calm behavior and chewing on their bones get attention.
Also, we need to teach puppies how to settle down and be quiet. Owners can come up with a verbal command, such as, "Go settle down in your bed." When they give this command, they give the puppy a food-stuffed toy and put the puppy in the bed. They start out keeping the puppy there five minutes, work up to ten minutes, and eventually to a couple of hours. Then when they have company, they can say, "Go settle down in your bed," and everyone will be amazed that the dog does it. It's learned that if it can settle down for a while—good things happen—and then it can come back to join the family.
Demichael: My unequivocal preference is crate training. In my opinion, crate training is not only essential, but aids the entire learning process. A crate is the puppy's home—bedroom and all. They learn very quickly to love their crate.
SOCIALIZATION
Ward: Certainly socialization is important in helping prevent behavior problems. Could you give practitioners some socialization tips that they could implement fairly easily?
Simpson: The socialization period from about 3 to 12 weeks of age, which we discussed earlier, is critical to puppies' brain maturation and learning. This developmental window is different from the rest of the social maturation that occurs during the first year. Studies show that dogs deprived of human contact during this time can develop a syndrome called kennelosis, in which they have a hard time adjusting to new people, facing new experiences, and learning new tasks. Optimizing this period by exposing the puppy to positive situations related to their future lifestyle, such as seeing children in a positive way, will help them later. Puppies that are well-socialized during this critical period actually learn faster, adapt better to new situations, and are less likely to develop fear-based problems.
Ward: Since many clients have small children in the family, could you be more specific about positive interactions with small children?
Simpson: It's critical that the puppy learns that children are part of the world. But, we don't want the puppy to learn to be afraid or defensive around children. Ideally, the experiences should be positive but realistic. We don't want to expose the puppy to children who tease or hit it inappropriately. Also, children who fall on the puppy or poke it or are excessively loud may frighten the puppy, which can lead to defensive or fear-based behavior later. That means parents need to supervise carefully if they have a young puppy and young children in the home. Not everything has to be a garden of roses, but the puppy basically needs to associate the child with positive things. After 12 weeks, learning continues, of course. Positive, calm behavior around children—especially in the house—should be encouraged. For example, if there is an infant in the home, someone should manage the puppy when the baby is around, having it sit quietly and giving it treats or petting it, engaging it in positive, but quiet, behavior. So the puppy thinks, "Gee, nice things happen when the baby is around, but I understand I can't just romp around and jump on the baby."
Horwitz: I ask clients how much exposure their puppy had to people in the first year of life, and almost everyone says, "Lots, and it was with us the whole time." That's generally not adequate because it provides only a limited scope of exposure to people. If you want your puppy to get used to visitors, have visitors come several times a week. If you want to expose the puppy to children, have children over several times a week. Make these associations positive, using play and food rewards. In my puppy classes, I used to give treats with the rule that no one who lived with the puppy could give it the biscuits. Dr. Wayne Hunthausen, a behavior expert, calls them "socialization biscuits." Then we'd have a contest to see who found the most unusual person to introduce their puppy to outside of class. One of the best introductions was to an 85-year-old grandma dressed for church with her walker—someone a puppy might normally be afraid of. People have to think outside their normal environment when it comes to socializing their puppy. If your mail is delivered by the street, have the mailman throw a treat to the puppy so it learns that it doesn't need to go into a frenzy every time the mail comes.
Ward: My wife and I go to great lengths to take our young daughters to different places so they have fun and develop in different ways. Those are the same rules we apply when raising pets.
Horwitz: But owners need to be aware of situations that may be too much for a new puppy. Taking a puppy to a pet superstore and letting 10 or 12 people surround it could overwhelm it and create a fear association. Veterinarians can educate clients to read their puppy's emotional state: If the pupils are dilated, the ears pinned back, and the body crouched low to the ground, this isn't a good socialization experience. The owners need to realize it isn't working for their puppy and calmly leave. If its ears are pricked up, that's good. Even if it approaches something slowly, backs up, and then goes forward again, it's generally OK; the puppy at first was wary, but learned that the situation was fine.
Demichael: Others may disagree, but I try to limit uncontrolled exposure after puppies go to their new homes. Perhaps I'm overprotective, but I specifically ask clients who live near public dog parks to keep their new pet away from such areas until they've completed the pet's vaccination series. This would be until the pet is 4 months old. I certainly encourage socialization and clients taking pets with them wherever they go when the puppies are 8 months or older.
Simpson: Also, a command system is a safety net for puppies and tells them what to do in confusing situations. Puppies need to learn to calmly sit and stay on command, wearing a leash, next to the owner. Puppies are rewarded for being calm and obedient and begin to develop a comfort zone. Later, puppies can go into new situations and know what to do. The "stay" command is especially important. When puppies associate staying in place with safety, whether it's a stand, down, or sit command, they're easier to examine in the clinic. Owners can have their puppy stand while the veterinarian gets a burr out of its foot, treats its ears, or does routine body care. The puppy understands that it's safe when under command control. However, that control needs to be positive-based. If you are using fear or intimidation with a command system, you don't get the safety-zone benefit.
Horwitz: The same is true for leashes, flat collars, body harnesses, head collars—anything that lets the puppy know the owner is in control. It's similar to the secure way children feel when we hold their hand or pick them up. If a puppy is wearing a leash or a body harness, it's connected to someone who is saying, "I'm in control. Everything is fine." Again, the owner needs to assess the situation and if it seems to overwhelm the puppy, it is best to leave before anxiety and fear become apparent.
HOUSETRAINING Ward: Now for the really tough questions. General practitioners are constantly confronted with questions from new pet owners about house-training, biting, tearfulness, and assertiveness. What advice can you give us about how to handle these issues?
Horwitz: In housetraining, it's important to keep the puppy nearby at all times; one way is with a tie-down. Look for the puppy to become restless—to move around or start whining. These are signs usually associated with a full bladder or bowel. The owner can scoop up the puppy, take it outside, and give it the opportunity to eliminate in the right place. The second component of housetraining is what I call, "Do it here and do it now." Take the puppy to the appropriate location, use a verbal command, and when the dog eliminates, reward it. The reward is not for emptying its bladder or bowel—that's rewarding in itself. It's for doing it at the right location on command. I tell people to pick a phrase, such as, "Go potty," or "Take care of business." Repeat the command over and over so the pet associates the phrase with the action. This allows the owner to verbally control elimination.
A big mistake people make is to quit going outside with the puppy too early in the housetraining process. They let it out and when it comes back in, they give it a treat, thinking they've rewarded outdoor elimination. What they've really rewarded is coming back into the house. Puppies are smart, and they learn that if they go out the door, nothing good happens, but when they come back in, great things happen. So the owners put the puppy out on the porch, leave, come back, find the puppy in the same place, and assume it went. All it's doing is waiting to come through the door to get that treat. The owner needs to go outside, witness elimination, and when that becomes more reliable, he or she may be able to watch from the doorway to verify elimination. But unless the puppy eliminates when it is outside, it's likely to eliminate indoors later.
Demichael: Great point. The key word is time. Clients must spend time observing and interacting with a puppy. If they don't watch and learn to read a puppy's body language, it will be a difficult housetraining process with lots of frustration. They must anticipate their pet's schedule—consider the gastrocolic reflex in younger puppies—and set the feeding schedule based on the time between eating and defecating. Also, instruct clients to restrict water late at night.
Simpson: Sometimes people tell me they take their puppy out every hour, and when it comes back in, it urinates in the house. What's happening is that the puppy isn't going out when it really needs to and is confused. When it's outside it has no idea why; it's just having a fun time with the owner. The solution is to keep track of when the puppy actually needs to eliminate. Then, take it out to the potty area at those times. When the puppy does eliminate outside, it should be rewarded. If elimination does not occur within about five minutes, the puppy needs to come back into the house under leash or crate control for about 30 minutes before it's taken outside again. The owner should also keep track of when accidents are likely, so that during those times the puppy can be restrained or confined. Remember, every time a puppy successfully eliminates in the house, it is self-rewarded. The learning happens instantaneously. Punishing it half an hour later when you find the puddle does not teach the puppy to urinate outside only. I tell owners to invest a week or two, and if they do it correctly, housetraining happens fast.
Horwitz: The general rule of thumb is that a puppy can stay in a crate one more hour than its age in months during the day before it needs to eliminate. You cannot expect an 2-month-old puppy to go eight hours during the day without needing to eliminate. I often recommend an exercise pen with a crate in it. The crate is kept open and the exercise pen is covered with papers. The puppy can go in the crate and rest but empty its bladder and bowels on the paper. If the owner comes back every four hours to take the puppy outside, that's helpful. We need to counsel our working families so that their expectations are in line with their pet's physiology.
Demichael: I'm only speaking from extensive experience with one breed, Labrador retrievers, so my results may not apply across breeds. But having housetrained and crate-trained many puppies, I know that by the time my puppies are 4 months old, if managed properly, they can make it through a seven-hour night in a crate without any problem. Again, it's important that they're handled with conducive schedules—not fed at 10 p.m. and then crated for the night at 11 p.m.
Ward: We offer puppy daycare for working clients who can't go home every three hours. We recommend that clients "day camp" their puppies during the first few weeks to help with the housetraining process. It's very successful. We also train clients to reward puppies for elimination signals. We want the dog to tell us when it has to go. I taught a quiet Pekingese to ring a bell. We started ringing it every time the dog signaled it needed to go out and then gave it a treat. Pretty soon it was ringing the bell itself.
Horwitz: Owners can use a verbal cue such as, "Do you have to go potty?" When the puppy starts bouncing up and down, they say, "Oh boy, let's go, let's go, let's go." Soon the dog learns that if it needs to go and bounces up and down, the owner opens the door. You're right; the dog needs to be rewarded for that cue.
Bartges: Being an internist, I need to mention that if a puppy is having problems with housetraining, it needs to be examined to rule out a medical condition such as puppy vaginitis or an ectopic ureter.
That's where a strong client relationship, good medical history, and thorough physical exam come in.
Demichael: That's a great point. This would be the only exception to my "4-month-old puppies can make it overnight in the crate" rule.
Horwitz: Or poor nutrition or feeding regimens. I've seen housesoiling with inappropriate diets.
Ward: You're right; we certainly don't want to miss a medical or nutritional problem.
Demichael: Though I hold many flexible opinions on raising and training puppies, I have two firm rules for new puppy owners. Rule 1: We feed Eukanuba™ diets exclusively and insist that all our puppies are raised on the same. Rule 2: We insist that crate training is used for new puppies.
DESTRUCTIVE BEHAVIOR
Ward: What advice do you have for practitioners confronted with a client who says the puppy is displaying destructive behavior, such as chewing on the furniture?
Horwitz: We have to realize that puppies investigate everything with their mouths. There's a teething component, but for some dogs, especially mouth-oriented breeds such as retrievers, it's a huge part of their play repertoire. If the puppy is being destructive, I ask two questions. First, when does it happen, and second, where are you when it happens? If the puppy gets into things it's not supposed to and you're in another room, then shame on you, not shame on the puppy. The puppy doesn't know what it can and cannot explore with its mouth until you teach it. When you're home, you need to actively supervise the puppy and provide adequate chew toys. If it happens when you are away from home, you need to meet the needs for play and exploration for your puppy before you leave, and provide a safe, secure environment for the puppy while you're gone.
Demichael: Excellent point. Again, it's the time you spend with the puppy in the early weeks that makes the difference and pays future dividends. I tell prospective owners they're not getting a new pet, they're getting a new family member, and the puppy needs to be treated as such.
Ward: I tell my clients that close supervision is especially important in the first six months of a puppy's life. People assume that if they're home, they're supervising their pet, which may not be entirely true. They're watching television. They're checking e-mail and doing a hundred other things. Unless they're giving the puppy their undivided attention, the puppy should be
in a crate or on a tie-down. The crate is not punishment but a place where the puppy can't get into trouble. I tell clients that you wouldn't let your 2-year-old child have complete run of the house without close supervision— there are too many dangers and too much mischief to get into. Letting a puppy have free access to the house often results in negative behaviors including housesoiling, chewing, and destruction of furniture and other objects—or worse, injury from intoxication or electric shock. These behaviors damage the bond between pets and people and may ultimately end the relationship.
Demichael: This is the most important point to convey to new owners who think crates are punishment. Once crate-trained, puppies love their crate so much that they'll often go in it by themselves if the door is open.
Simpson: Also, separation anxiety can develop in young puppies. Every puppy goes through some separation anxiety when first separated from its siblings and mother. Hopefully this stage will be shortlived and the puppy will develop a routine and get over it. However, if destruction is occurring, especially if the puppy is chewing on the bars of its crate or pen or developing self-injurious behavior, it needs to be evaluated and possibly treated for separation anxiety.
Horwitz: It might be helpful to discuss how veterinarians can help owners teach puppies to be left home alone. An owner said to me, "When we go away for a short time, we leave the puppy in the kitchen. When we're gone a long time, we put it in the bathroom with a gate. Now the puppy's starting to be destructive in the bathroom, destroying the gate, the wallpaper, and the toilet paper." What these owners had inadvertently done was send a message to the puppy that when it was in the kitchen, they were coming right back, and when it was in the bathroom, they would be gone a long time. Pets make those associations very well. The answer was to put the puppy in the kitchen every time they left because the kitchen had become a safe place.
We want the puppy to understand that when it's in its safe place—whether it's the kitchen, the crate, or a room with a gate—on average the owners are coming right back. As soon as owners bring a puppy home, they should start putting it in its safe place, leaving a chew toy stuffed with food, making sure the puppy is comfortable, and leaving it alone for a short time. Sometimes they leave for five minutes, sometimes 10 minutes. Then it's two minutes and then it's 20 minutes. Then it's an hour and then it's five minutes. As soon as they get back and the puppy is quiet, they let it out. The puppy begins to realize that if it just waits, its owners will be back any moment. I think it's very important for puppies to learn to be alone and be calm.
Simpson: Another thing I emphasize is a basic recall command, which is very important for safety. If the puppy runs away or gets in a situation it shouldn't, the owner should always be able to say, "Come, puppy," and distract it out of the negative situation. Children are great at working with that sort of command; they have treats and call the puppy, being positive and rewarding it when it comes. In training recall, whenever the puppy comes when called, it should be rewarded. If every time the puppy is called, it's put in its crate for six hours, it will soon learn not to come when called.
If most of the times when it's called, it's told to sit and is given a treat, then told to "go play," it will quickly learn to come when called.
SUBMISSIVE URINATION
Ward: What advice do you have for practitioners whose clients complain that their puppy is overly submissive or fearful? For example, it urinates when a stranger walks up to it.
Simpson: Submissive urination is fairly common in young dogs. What usually happens is someone approaches the puppy rapidly, stands over it, reaches for it, or does something else that makes the puppy think it needs to act submissively in response to a dominant or threatening gesture. The worst thing the owner can do is punish the puppy because it will just feel it needs to be more submissive, and its behavior will become more extreme. The best thing to do is ignore the puppy but also begin to teach a command that will show it what to do. In daily exercises, the owner should teach the puppy to sit in the entry hall on command for treats. Then, the owner tells the puppy to sit when visitors come over and the puppy knows what to do and won't go into the submissive behavior.
Horwitz: Submissive displays are appeasement behaviors— they say to the approaching individual, "Please don't hurt me; I'm no threat to you." So if the owner reprimands the pet or even moves too quickly, the puppy doesn't understand why its appeasement display isn't working. I sometimes have people create a treat jar with a bell on top and train the puppy to come and sit when it hears the bell. The puppy knows when it hears that bell that something good is going to happen, so the jar can be used to change the puppy's underlying emotional state. Guests can come in and shake the jar, and now the puppy has an emotional conflict: "I am not sure if this is safe, but they have the treat jar, which I know means good things, so they're probably not going to hurt me." The owner might see a change from crouching to sitting—the puppy has learned if it "sits pretty" for the treat jar, good things will happen. That's one way to work on changing submissive behavior.
AGGRESSION
Ward: What about the opposite complaint—the puppy is growling and beginning to nip and bite at the owner. The behavior is starting to escalate. What can we tell these clients?
Horwitz: Puppies can growl when they're fearful. They can growl when they're being assertive. When owners tell me their puppy is growling, I want to know the whole sequence of events that led up to the behavior. What happened the very first time the puppy growled at them? Often pup-
pies become fearfully aggressive when their owners react to them harshly, and they don't understand why. Punishment after the fact is a good example—dragging the puppy back to the urine on the floor or the chewed-up remote control and screaming at it. The puppy doesn't understand, so it becomes defensively aggressive. In examining all the episodes in which growling behavior is taking place, we can determine whether it's being offensively aggressive or defensively aggressive. Then we can avoid those circumstances and teach alternative behaviors.
Simpson: If a client mentions growling during a routine exam, that's a red flag. The veterinarian needs to set up another appointment to discuss how serious this is, especially if there are children in the home or if biting is involved. Early intervention is extremely important.
Ward: Often I find that clients are in denial. The puppy displays aggressive tendencies in the exam room and they say, "Well, it's just the context; he doesn't do this anywhere else." True or not, this should initiate a dialogue between the veterinarian and owner about modifying these behaviors. No one likes to be told, "He's only bad around you." It's important that we don't become defensive when a client says things like this. View it as an opportunity to educate and improve the
relationship between the client and this pet. Stay positive with your communication and everyone will benefit.
Horwitz: As veterinarians, we need to realize that sometimes our behavior causes the problem. Some puppies are shy and timid, and it doesn't take much to make them afraid. It's not as though they can say, "Doctor, I don't like that. Could you tone it down a bit?" They use a dog-based communication tool—growling, often accompanied by fearful body positions. We may need to assess that puppy's temperament and whether it's suitable for its home. If it's a very shy, timid puppy in a busy household or a family with lots of children, it may be a bad match, and the puppy would be better off in a different home environment.
Simpson: I teach a behavior course at North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine, and every year a student comes to me and says, "You know, I worked with a veterinarian over the summer, and we had this puppy that growled when we put it on the table. The veterinarian grabbed it, scruffed it, and laid it on the table to show who was boss." I ask what happened next. It's common that the student says the puppy urinated or just screamed. I ask what happened after that. Often the student says everybody in the waiting room got really nervous, the puppy kept screaming, and finally the veterinarian just got tired of the whole thing and walked out. Now, is that puppy going to be better or worse the next time it comes in? Puppy visits are opportunities to teach dogs how to behave when they are handled their whole lives. Just as important as the vaccine administration is the training that teaches the puppy to be calm and obedient. Small, tasty treats for puppies, a towel on the exam table for warmth, and gentle handling are strategies that can help puppies deal with an unfamiliar situation. Puppy visits are also opportunities to evaluate the puppy's behavior. Puppies that growl or snap when gently handled are risks to families. When this occurs, a consultation should be set up to discuss the situations when aggression occurs and to devel op a treatment plan, which may include referral. Solving such temperament problems cannot be done in a brief office visit. Increasing the puppy's fear with rough handling will not remedy the situation.
Horwitz: There's a lot of misinformation on behavior. Ever veterinarians believe it because they grew up with it. The style of training used until the early 1970s was based on the way dogs were trained for the U.S. military in World War II. This is much different from what the average pet owner needs.
That is a huge problem for behavioral medicine.
FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE TRAINING
Ward: When it comes to training your puppy, what factors influence the process?
Horwitz: The skill of the person doing the training, the temperament and genetics of the puppy, the environment— these are all important. But the most crucial factor is the trainer's ability to read when he or she has achieved success. Puppies learn differently. You can teach two puppies exactly the same way, and one will get it and one won't. Motivation also varies from puppy to puppy. Some puppies like to be interactive and explore new things, and some don't.
Ward: Is it fair to say that while every puppy may not become a search-and-rescue dog, all puppies can potentially be trained as pets?
Horwitz: If there is nothing medically wrong and they are placed properly, most puppies can be family pets.
Simpson: I disagree. We've seen puppies that are not tem-permentally suitable for family pets—particularly in families with children. Heritability is important. Some dogs make great herding dogs, for example, but terrible family pets.
Ward: But do we agree that if we look at all the dogs in the world, most of them would work out as pets?
Simpson: Dogs have been selected for thousands of years to work with people. That's not the same as saying that every dog is suitable for a family that's gone all day and that engages in a frenzy of activity with children coming and going when they're home. Today's normal family life is pretty abnormal for dogs. They are left alone for long periods, have little contact with other dogs, and may have inadequate exercise and social interaction. I think that emphasizes the importance of preselection and socialization. Not just any dog can adapt to this kind of home life.
Demichael: Preselection is very important. Heritability is critical. As a breeder, I breed the best with the best and hope for the best. But when dealing with living creatures, we can't control everything.
Horwitz: This may sound radical, but every family may not be suitable for a puppy. If the parents work long hours, have kids with after-school activities, and are gone weekends, it can be very difficult to fit a dog into that lifestyle. Puppies need social care, exploration, and training. They can be dirty and messy. Sometimes a veterinarian should say, "I'm not sure that
a dog is the best idea for your family at this point in your lives. Maybe another kind of pet might work better." I don't think we do a disservice to our clients by being open about the type of pet that might work best; in fact, we may be preventing the pain of relin-quishment that is hard on families and pets.
Demichael: Find out how much time is available to spend with a new pet. If they don't have enough time for a puppy, perhaps they should wait before acquiring one or perhaps an older dog might be a better alternative.
Ward: So we have to maximize the opportunities for proper breed selection, proper training, reinforcement of good behavior, and making sure the family environment is appropriate, or we could get into trouble with behavior. Veterinarians should be proactive with their clients regarding these selection issues. Not just any old dog will work out any old time.
Horwitz: Right. It takes work to have a puppy be a good pet.
Demichael: Work plus time equals a good pet. Look at it as an investment in your family.
THE ROLE OF NUTRITION Ward: Let's turn our focus to nutrition and its role in train-ability. What do we know about the relationship between learning, trainability, and nutrition in dogs?
Bartges: Good nutrition influences not only the physical development of a puppy but psychological development as well. During the developmental period we discussed earlier, that 3- to 12-week window, the brain is developing and neural connections are being formed. Nutrition, along with environment, affects that process. Recent studies linking trainability and the omega-3 fatty acids found in fish, particularly docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), are very interesting. Supplementing with DHA is not interventional, which is what we are trained to be as veterinarians, but proactive.
That is, we can optimize nutrition to help an animal reach its genetic potential.
Ward: We're familiar with the importance of DHA in human nutrition. A 2002 study showed that infants fed diets supplemented with DHA had superior cognitive ability and visual acuity. I guess we're starting to say, "If this works for people, it may apply to animals."
Bartges: If you do a Medline search on the terms DHA and intelligence or neural development, you'll hit about 600 studies. It's been studied in people, rodents, and other animals. As small animal veterinarians, we are learning that there is much we can do from a proactive standpoint rather than waiting for a problem to occur and addressing it with a therapeutic diet. That's exciting.
Ward: And it's important for our profession that nutrition companies are actively researching this area and acting on the outcomes. The lams Company, for example, recognizing the important of dietary DHA in cognitive development, is supplementing their puppy and lactation diets with higher levels of DHA. While all premium diets contain some DHA, lams has taken the lead by increasing the amount of DHA traditionally found in foods. I think we'll see other companies following their lead, which will ultimately result in even better diets for our puppy patients.
Simpson: The lams study is fascinating. It took 39 puppies of one genetic type, beagles, provided them with similar early neonatal experiences, and examined how quickly they learned a task. The 19 puppies fed a DHA-supple-mented diet learned the tasks more quickly and performed better than the 20 puppies fed a routine diet. What's more, the puppies were all selected for good health. They were well-socialized, vaccinated, and had no infectious diseases or parasites. They had everything on their side going into the study. Even with all those benefits, we see a significant advantage in the supplemented puppies in terms of learning. So we hope that by adding this nutritional benefit, we can really see improvement down the road. We would cer-
tainly like to see more longitudinal data showing the differences between these groups in real-life environments.
Horwitz: The dams had the supplemented food as well. As veterinarians in practice, we don't often get the chance to have an impact on the nutrition of the puppies' mothers. These data indicate how important optimal nutrition is—it has an important role in all life stages of companion dogs.
Ward: So not making good diet recommendations could place pets and clients at a behavioral disadvantage. In the human field we've been talking about DHA for some time. Why do you think DHA is just now coming to light in the veterinary world?
Bartges: I think it's because of the way the pet nutrition industry evolved. First there was a need to provide life-stage nutrition. Out of that grew therapeutic diets that were interventional in nature. Now that those diets have been around for a long time, we're coming around again and looking more at being proactive. Studies indicate that 70% to 80% of people view their dogs and cats as children. The goal is to maximize the family member's health and prevent problems before they start. That prevention-based approach is not all that old in human medicine either. We're actually not that far behind.
Ward: Let's face it, the real pet behavior issues are very complex. As a general practitioner, I have to ask myself if I am going to allow nutrition to prevent a pet from maximizing its potential. We are not saying nutrition will be the deciding factor. But poor nutrition can be a deciding factor in behavior.
Bartges: Excellent nutrition won't necessarily override poor genetics, but poor nutrition can certainly impact good genetics negatively.
Horwitz: We also have to recognize that good nutrition ,won't override inappropriate expectations or poor training. Even if a puppy receives optimal nutrition, it will still have problems if the owners can't make their expectations clear, provide an appropriate environment, or meet the puppy's social, exploratory, play, and exercise needs.
Ward: Even so, we're saying that the discussion of behavior and training must now include nutrition.
Bartges: Right. We're not saying the lams study proves causality, but we're saying this is something we should discuss. Is your puppy being fed a proper diet to optimize its potential? Exactly how much influence DHA has we don't know yet. But research indicates it has some influence on behavior, so we have to take a step back and look at the whole picture, including diet.
Horwitz: The improvement in nutrition for puppies has been astronomical. Knowing what we know now about bone growth and metabolism and developing separate foods for large and small breeds are just a few in a long line of improvements.
Bartges: What we're doing now is tweaking. We have good formulas—and we're trying to make them great.
Ward: It's interesting to note that in the lams study the control group wasn't eating the worst diet available. The comparison diets that were used were good diets. When we talk about tweaking and enhancing, we're showing thai a small change can make a significant difference.
Bartges: However, some might believe that they can take a poor diet and just add fish oil to it. That's probably not going to work because it isn't just a single nutrient producing the change. It's the combination of nutrients in the food—these are very complex interactions.
Ward: I think it's part of our culture to want a fix in a pill.
Bartges: Right; I take fish oil; therefore, I'm not going to have heart disease even though I eat pretzels and smoke all day.
IMPLICATIONS OF RESEARCH
Ward: What are the implications of this study? Can we extrapolate the data at this point?
Horwitz: It's difficult to say, because we won't know if the mothers have been fed the food. By the time the owner gets the puppy, it is 7, 8, or 9 weeks old and we're talking about a different intervention point, a different point of brain growth. This study only looked at one breed of puppy in a very controlled environment, one quite unlike the usual household. However, other studies have shown that diet can improve cognitive function at a later age, so there is reason to believe that diet could improve trainability and learning because learning is linked to cognitive function.
Bartges: The question is: will we see an effect in puppies that weren't nursed by mothers who had DHA in their diets? Will it work if we start feeding it at 8 or 10 weeks of age rather than from the time of weaning? It worked in beagles; will it work in Chihuahuas? In Weimaramers? Will it work in mixed-breed dogs?
Ward: Personally I feel very strongly about the results. We've seen the benefits of DHA demonstrated in study after study in people. Obviously, it's an extrapolation to dogs, but I think that this is probably the right direction. I'm excited to see the next round of research from lams.
Simpson: I suspect that the positive effect of the DHA-sup-plemented food will be most noticeable when combined with a behavioral program, just like behavioral drugs. They work best when you have a good behavioral plan in place concurrent with their use.
Horwitz: A better term than trainability might be optimized learning. Improving trainability implies that you show the puppy something once and it does it. Optimizing learning says that puppies may learn better, but they have to be taught. It may just be semantics, but I do think there's a difference. The data seemed to show that the food optimized this specific group of puppies' ability to learn a task. Owners will still need to teach their puppy the appropriate tasks and behavior.
NUTRITION AND WORKING DOGS
Ward: What are the implications of DHA supplementation for search-and-rescue dogs or guide dogs?
Horwitz: The nutritional needs of working dogs can be very high because these dogs often experience higher stress levels, different environments, and more intense performance demands than companion dogs.
Simpson: The cost to train working dogs is very high, so the more we can increase their longevity, the better, whether it's through orthopedics, nutrition, or behavior.
Bartges: DHA may be something that, when used early in a puppy's life, yields great rewards later in life. These working dogs, like all performance athletes, have a narrower margin of safety than the average individual. A lot of dogs do fine on marginal diets because they don't have the stresses or demands. But performance dogs, whether they are sled dogs, racing greyhounds, search-and-rescue dogs, or guide dogs, function at a higher level of stress and expectation.
Horwitz: So the room for error is much smaller.
Simpson: We do see behavior problems in working dogs— problems like separation anxiety, generalized anxiety, and even aggression—which definitely limit their ability to function. If through diet we can reduce the probability of behavior problems, we can go a long way to improving the work longevity and quality of life in these dogs.
Horwitz: With these dogs performing at such a high level, any alteration in the underlying metabolic process can be expressed as a change in behavior. They just don't
feel right, and nutrition is a huge part of feeling good. All cylinders need to be firing at optimal levels.
PUTTING IT INTO PRACTICE
Ward: From a general practitioner's standpoint, I think behavior is largely underserved both in veterinary schools and general practice. Nutrition is also often largely ignored. But both are a huge part, not only of development, but of the maintenance of life and health. That's another reason general practitioners should take note of what's occurring in research and ask how they can apply it in their practice.
Bartges: And get staff involved to make even more of an impact. In a large practice, clients may or may not see the same veterinarian, but they will probably see the same technician. That's the person who can really emphasize the points we want to get across.
Ward: It's important to have a uniform voice making recommendations. In our clinic, all staff members feed their dogs Eukanuba™. If they believe in it, they'll be more likely to increase client compliance.
Horwitz: Nutrition is an easily applied intervention for owners. They're going to feed their pets anyway. With so many choices out there, it seems they would appreciate direction about which one is best for the life stage of their pet.
Demichael: As a breeder and veterinarian, I generally find two types of new owners: 1) those who ask and follow through on exactly what I recommend; in some cases, to the extreme. 2) Those who are so bombarded by marketing that they ask me about every new food claim. I remind them of my two rules, that is, feeding Eukanuba™ diets exclusively, and insisting on crate training for new puppies.
Ward: Many practitioners don't spend much time talking about diet because they don't want to be seen as a salesman. But if they take time to look at the science and understand the implications of nutrition on the health of their patients, it takes on a different meaning.
Demichael: My clients know that I don't recommend anything for their pet that I don't first use on my own. It's why Dr. Ward's comment about staff members feeding their pets Eukanuba™ food is important. It's not "do as I say," it's "do as I do."
Ward: This DHA-enhanced diet may be the tipping point for practitioners, something to push them toward talking about socialization or puppy classes. Integrating behavior into a practice can seem challenging. You're dealing with many different issues during the first four visits—vaccination, nutrition, housetraining, spaying and neutering, poison ous plants, and so on. The solution is to develop structured systems so you can be consistent. We cover all this content in a very specific way in our clinic so that we hit all the important points with every puppy and kitten.
Horwitz: I tell veterinarians that you can't treat patients that your clients no longer have. Often when people get rid of pets for behavioral reasons, they don't get another one because they feel they did something wrong, and it's thei fault. If veterinarians look at the whole picture of what it takes to keep a pet within a home, not only do they benefi the pet and the client, they benefit themselves.
Ward: I always say that behav ior problems are the great sabc teur of profitability. Not only do you lose patients because the client is not coming in as often due to embarrassment or difficulty, but the bond between family and pet is often compromised.
If we lose a pet because of behavior or developmental problems or an age-related preventable disease, then I've failed my responsibility to the pet and the owner. If nutrition helps me prevent that from happening, then I need to make those recommendations. If I don't, who pays the real cost? The family. I don't want to let that happen if I can do anything to help it.
The relationship between nutrition, behavior, and learning is just beginning. This ground-breaking research is sure to set off discussion and additional scientific studies. What we do know is this: Today's veterinarians need to incorporate nutrition, lifestyle management, exercise, behavior, and empathy into their medical and surgical protocols. We share a single goal—to help people and the pets they share their lives with. With continued research and support from companies like The lams Company, we are better able to achieve our aim of making pets' lives healthier, better, and longer.
REFERENCE
1. Miller, D.D. etal.: Factors associated with the decision to surrender a pet to an animal shelter. JAVMA 29 (4):738-742; 1996.